Where is, and recognizing the devil

[nobspeople]

How can one recognize the devil?
"Be careful! Watch out for attacks from the devil, your great enemy. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for some victim to devour. Take a firm stand against him, and be strong in your faith" (I Peter 5:8-9)
There it's said he's a like a roaring lion, but here
"Satan can disguise himself as an angel of light. So it is no wonder his servants can also do it by pretending to be godly ministers" (II Corinthians 11:14-15).
it says he can be like an angel of light.

So which is it? A roaring lion or light angel? Contradictory much? Or maybe, the devil can be both things, at which point we're right back to the first question, how can one recognize him.

"Humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you" (James 4:7).
This seems to say if you're humble before god, you can resist the devil and he will leave you. But it still doesn't say how to recognize him.
This:
"He was a murderer from the beginning and has always hated the truth. There is no truth in him. When he lies, it is consistent with his character; for he is a liar and the father of lies" (John 8:44).
doesn't seem to help recognizing him, either - just tells you what it claims the devil is.

Seems the devil is more of a spirit and less of a legitimate 'thing' (though some claim it's a very real person - see link below*, which seems odd to use the term 'person'), so maybe, to recognize it, when need to know where it lives today.
Pergamum was said to be “where the throne of Satan is” and “where Satan is dwelling.” (Revelation 2:13). However, some think this refers more to the satanic worship than an actual residence. Odd that god would let some think this and others think something else, but that's another story to address elsewhere.
The Bible says that the Devil rules over “all the kingdoms of the inhabited earth,” so he does not dwell in any one physical location on earth but is confined to the vicinity of the earth.​—(Luke 4:​5, 6).

For discussion: How does one recognize the devil? Or does that even matter? And where is the devil today?

* https://www.focusonthefamily.com/family ... the-devil/

[JehovahsWitness]

We will see if Gods word proves true after Harmegeddon. Last man standing. ...

We're in for a long wait...

How can you possibly know that? Do you have time travel powers or do you mean you believe we're in for a long wait.

To learn more please go to other posts related to...

ARMAGEDDON, LAST DAYS and ...JESUS SECOND COMING

[Goat]

...she acquired his vanity and ego. ...

Sorry, i don’t see any reason to think the vanity and ego would be God’s qualities.

"For I am a Jealous God" That fits in with vanity and ego.

I don’t think so. I think envy could maybe be, but jealousy is basically to expect one to keep what is his. I think it is not vain or egoistical.

Jealousy and envy go hand in hand. Jealousy is insecurity, and ego, with a bit of control freak put in. Funny thing, being jealous and putting rules on others is being a control freak, and that is against free will. The whole concept 'If you don't do what I say, I'll punish you' is ego. 'You can't worship other gods' is like a guy telling a woman 'you can't have friends with other people'.

[1213]

....Jealousy is insecurity, and ego, with a bit of control freak put in. Funny thing, being jealous and putting rules on others is being a control freak, and that is against free will. The whole concept 'If you don't do what I say, I'll punish you' is ego. 'You can't worship other gods' is like a guy telling a woman 'you can't have friends with other people'.

Sorry, I disagree with you. It depends on what are the reasons. If God tells for example, don’t murder, it is egoistical, if the reason for doing so is egoistical. I don’t think God’s reasons are egoistical, He is thinking what is best for humans.

[Goat]

....Jealousy is insecurity, and ego, with a bit of control freak put in. Funny thing, being jealous and putting rules on others is being a control freak, and that is against free will. The whole concept 'If you don't do what I say, I'll punish you' is ego. 'You can't worship other gods' is like a guy telling a woman 'you can't have friends with other people'.

Sorry, I disagree with you. It depends on what are the reasons. If God tells for example, don’t murder, it is egoistical, if the reason for doing so is egoistical. I don’t think God’s reasons are egoistical, He is thinking what is best for humans.

Now, of course, you have to show that God told anybody not to murder, and then you will have to reconcile it with such biblical claims as dashing babies against rocks, flooding the entire world and killing everyone, and the final phrase in the parable in luke that says 'But these mine enemies, that would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before me.' Oh, bears killing kids too . That makes distinguishing what is claims for god, and what is claimed for satan to be blurred.

Of course, the Jewish concept of Satan is a fair bit different than the Christian version.

[tam]

Peace to you,

[Replying to Goat in post #62]

'You can't worship other gods' is like a guy telling a woman 'you can't have friends with other people'.

I must also disagree with this (sorry I was just perusing the site and this comment caught my eye; I have not read through the thread).


"You can't worship other gods" is like a husband telling his wife - a woman who entered into a binding contract/covenant with him- that she cannot take other lovers. She must be faithful to him and to him alone. As per the terms of the contract/covenant that she willingly entered into with him.


Just sayin'


Peace again to you all.

[William]

Peace to you,

[Replying to Goat in post #62]

'You can't worship other gods' is like a guy telling a woman 'you can't have friends with other people'.

I must also disagree with this (sorry I was just perusing the site and this comment caught my eye; I have not read through the thread).


"You can't worship other gods" is like a husband telling his wife - a woman who entered into a binding contract/covenant with him- that she cannot take other lovers. She must be faithful to him and to him alone. As per the terms of the contract/covenant that she willingly entered into with him.


Just sayin'


Peace again to you all.

There is no commandment where an individual cannot interact with any Gods, other than the Overall GOD.
What the commandment is pointing to is that one cannot do so, without including the overall GOD within the framework of any other interactions one has with any other gods.

Effectively this means that in acknowledging the existence of Gods, one also acknowledges The Source-God as the overall GOD of The Gods.

Which is also to say, one acknowledges that Gods exist because GOD created them.

[Diagoras]

We will see if Gods word proves true after Harmegeddon. Last man standing. ...

We're in for a long wait...

How can you possibly know that? Do you have time travel powers or do you mean you believe we're in for a long wait.

Inferred on balance of probabilities.

You will no doubt be aware of your religious organisation's abysmal record on predictions. Eschatology isn't exclusive to Jehovahs Witnesses, either. The Mesoamerican Long Count calendar, the Zoroastrian story in the Bundahishn, Ragnarök (Norse mythology), Yawm al-Qiyāmah in Islam, even David Meade's faith in planet Nibiru colliding with Earth on September 23, 2017 - if you trouble yourself to investigate even a few stories about the end of the earth, one clear commonality starts to emerge...

This is, of course, tangential to 'recognising the devil' (the purpose of the thread). So I suggest that waiting around until the end of the earth to realise what was, and what wasn't the 'work of the devil' is an utterly pointless exercise.

[JehovahsWitness]

Eschatology isn't exclusive to Jehovahs Witnesses ...

eschatology

the part of theology concerned with death, judgement, and the final destiny of the soul and of humankind.

I had to look that up.


All I can say is our message isn't about death and judgement so much as life and liberation. We are, to the best of my knowledge, the only religion that doesn't believe in the existence of an immortal soul.



JW

[JehovahsWitness]

.... I suggest that waiting around until the end of the earth to realise what was, and what wasn't the 'work of the devil' is an utterly pointless exercise.

Are you suggesting that is what *I* proposed?

[Purple Knight]

....Jealousy is insecurity, and ego, with a bit of control freak put in. Funny thing, being jealous and putting rules on others is being a control freak, and that is against free will. The whole concept 'If you don't do what I say, I'll punish you' is ego. 'You can't worship other gods' is like a guy telling a woman 'you can't have friends with other people'.

Sorry, I disagree with you. It depends on what are the reasons. If God tells for example, don’t murder, it is egoistical, if the reason for doing so is egoistical. I don’t think God’s reasons are egoistical, He is thinking what is best for humans.

Yet, I don't get to tell others what to do even for their own good. It's considered nasty and mean even if I'm right.

I don't know why this is, actually, and there's a large bit of cognitive dissonance inherent in the claim that I'm being nasty and mean in doing this, but people still think it's true. Yet if they have half the IQ advantage on some simpleton that I have on them, they have absolutely no qualms whatsoever declaring that the simpleton cannot take care of himself and forcing him into some home where he'll invariably be abused. And they take away his right to have sex, because he "can't consent" but that average person destroying himself with drugs and having fathered eighteen illegitimate children? Well, leave him alone, let him do him.

I don't get it. But it's apparently just the way it is: People don't get to tell other people what to do, even for their own good, unless they're so profoundly stupid in which case let's all just bully them because we can get away with it.